Cibolo restaurant reopens Saturday

By David DeKunder :
September 18, 2012

Almost a year after a fire damaged a part of their business, the owners of Harmon's Barbecue in Cibolo are moving back into their newly refurbished restaurant.

To mark the occasion, restaurant co-owners Ray Harmon and Ron Ruiz are holding a grand reopening celebration Saturday, from 11 a.m. to midnight, which includes live music and servings of their famed smoke pit barbecue.

“We are real excited about getting back into the restaurant and getting people back through the front door,” Harmon said. “The last few months have been tough.”

The main dining area and kitchen of Harmon's, on Main Street in historic downtown Cibolo, were damaged during an early morning fire Nov. 22, just two days before Thanksgiving.

The cause of the fire is believed to be an electrical short.

For the last 10 months, Harmon's has been operating out of a makeshift dining and kitchen area in a former game and meeting room, part of the restaurant not damaged in the fire.

When customers step into the newly renovated restaurant, they will notice a different look to it, the co-owners say. Bob Catalano, a general contractor who owns the building Harmon's occupies, has made several upgrades to the restaurant which gives it more of a western- and country-style theme and design.

“It will be a fully revamped restaurant with a completely new kitchen, all new electrical and plumbing and new bathrooms,” Catalano said. “The whole new restaurant will be brought up to code.”

The new kitchen will have more space and a larger oven, and an updated exhaust and fire suppression system. In addition, the entire roof structure, gutted in the fire, has been replaced.

Catalano said two new retail businesses will be opening inside Harmon's, a barber shop and an antique/candy/ice cream store. The barber shop will be in a partitioned area near the former game room while the antique/ice cream store will be on a newly built second story in the front area of the restaurant.

“The reconstruction (of Harmon's) is really going to complement the good food the place has been serving,” Catalano said.

The banquet/meeting room, in the back of the restaurant, will also reopen after having smoke damage from the fire.

Harmon said several customers are already inquiring about the availability of the banquet/meeting room, which the restaurant rents out for various functions such as promotions and retirements, wedding receptions and organizational meetings.

“Overall the restaurant is going to be a little different than before,” Harmon said, “and then, in some ways, better than before.”